Report: Few teachers pay for health care

WEST MICHIGAN — Few local teachers contributed to the cost of their health insurance in 2008-09, and all received their insurance through a plan affiliated with their union, according to a recent statewide report.

The report found that in Muskegon County, most teachers didn’t contribute to health premiums for coverage provided by MESSA, which is affiliated with the state’s largest teachers union.

Local exceptions in 2008-09 were Holton, where 55 teachers contributed $100 per month to their premiums; Muskegon, where teachers contributed $156.13 per month; and Whitehall, where 103 teachers contributed $43.33 per month.

In some other districts, including Mona Shores, Montague, Oakridge, Orchard View and Reeths-Puffer, teachers wanting a higher level of coverage paid the difference in premiums.

The center found that the 2008-09 average annual premium for 602 family plans offered to teachers was $15,786, and the average annual employee contribution to these plans was $665, or 4.2 percent. Teachers in 301 of those plans made no contribution to the cost of their insurance premium.

That compares to an average family premium in Michigan in 2008 of $11,321, reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. On average, employees contribute $2,522, or 22 percent, to the cost of their monthly premium.

Local superintendents say the information doesn’t reflect concessions in health plans or adjustments in their salaries that teachers have agreed to in recent years. Health insurance is considered part of teachers’ overall compensation packages and are negotiated by local Michigan Education Association bargaining units as part of their employment contracts.

“In each one of our negotiations, our teachers have been willing to either contribute more or make changes in their health care,” said Reeths-Puffer Superintendent Steve Cousins. “Though it’s not perfect, they’ve been willing to be partners in that.”

Critics of teacher compensation and district budget-cutting measures have called on districts to switch teachers from their MESSA insurance. MESSA, a third-party insurance administrator affiliated with the MEA, sells Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans to a majority of Michigan schools.

But switching insurance has been an impossible sell at the bargaining table in local districts. Cousins said his board of education has unsuccessfully tried getting teachers to agree to other insurance providers.

Next year, Reeths-Puffer teachers will resume making a $600-per-year contribution to their premiums which had been put on hold for two years because of other compensation concessions teachers have made, Cousins said.

Mona Shores Superintendent Terry Babbitt said health insurance has long been a coveted benefit for teachers, saying a 1988 strike in his district centered on health insurance changes.

“It’s just been very difficult to get that in an agreement for anybody,” Babbitt said. “It’s important to understand that the local (union representatives) receive guidance and direction from regional leadership and statewide leadership. When you’re negotiating, you typically negotiate against a statewide set of expectations at the MEA.”